There's a line that stayed with me while watching the Durrells:
“We all love the sunset, but we would be foolish to spend our lives travelling the world simply to chase it.” – inspired by the philosophy of the Durrells
The Durrells’ move wasn’t about chasing endless new horizons. It was about escaping dissatisfaction and then choosing to root themselves somewhere that allowed them to breathe.
It isn’t really about travel. It’s about the habit of believing that meaning exists in us, where we are. When the Durrell’s family left England for Corfu in the 1930s (as told in My Family and Other Animals – and later portrayed in The Durrells), their move was a romantic notion. It was bold, impulsive, almost whimsical. But once they arrived, something began to shift.
We’re naturally drawn to things that feel more meaningful than our everyday lives. It gives us a perspective, comfort that our lives will turn out better. It’s easy to live with a quiet sense of looking forwards – towards the next job, the next relationship, the next version of ourselves. As though personal fulfilment will land at our door, once something changes.
But what if the issue isn’t where we are, but how we're living where we are?
The Durrells seemed to understand a slower rhythm. They paid attention to the small things – shared meals, conversations and spent time in nature, with friends they met along the way. They let those things sit – they were enough.
Staying isn’t about giving up. It’s about being present. It’s about knowing yourself and your surroundings well enough to feel grounded and being happy with both, Instead, we're conditioned to believe that happiness lives somewhere else – in a new city, in a better job.
We subconsciously tell ourselves we'll feel happier, life will begin when something shifts.
But what feels unsettled within us usually follows us. And sometimes the real exhaustion comes not from our circumstances, but from constantly feeling the need to change things, to always anticipating what comes next, because we're not content with ourselves.
Contentment has less to do with searching for something better and more to do with paying attention to what is already here.
Maybe the invitation isn't to travel further, but to travel inwards. To look at the soul.
To sit with ourselves long enough to ask:
What does my soul need right now?
What feels true?
In staying, we can allow our thinking to shift. Life isn't about never going on holiday, holidays are often a welcome distraction, but it is about stepping back into ourselves and into our lives, long enough to enter our lives and to be content with who and where we are.
